Collective investment trusts may be an emerging notion for many defined contribution plans, but they are already well ensconced among the nation’s largest plans.

According to Pensions & Investments’ listing of the 100 largest corporate DC plans, collective investment trusts were the most popular investment vehicle, with $305.1 billion in assets. Mutual funds were well behind that total, with $221.5 billion, while separate account holdings totaled $66.3 billion.

A P&I analysis shows that company stock accounted for $207.5 billion, or about 19.4% of the aggregate $1.07 trillion in DC plan assets among the 100 largest corporate plans. Other options included:
• domestic large-cap equity ($180.8 billion);
• stable value ($118.9 billion);
• balanced funds and target-date funds ($103.9 billion); and
• all other fixed income ($97.3 billion).

Brokerage windows constituted about 2% of aggregate assets among the plans in P&I’s universe.

P&I drew its data from federal documents, including the Department of Labor’s Form 5500 and the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Form 11-K, primarily for companies’ 2013 plan years, the most recent data available at the time of the analysis. The analysis covers U.S.-based companies, both public and private, but it excludes mutual companies.